Two crucial issues to figure in talks with Modi

India will focus on two crucial issues during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's meeting with her Indian counterpart Norendra Modi in New Delhi on October 5.
"The first issue is mutual withdrawal of the objections lodged with the UN body to resolve the disputes related to the claims to the continental shelf in the Bay of Bengal.
The second one is 'to sign a specific deal to utilize a line of $500 million credit for purchasing military equipment from India', a senior official of the Foreign Ministry told the Daily Observer on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Sheikh
    Hasina will visit India from October 3 to 6 to hold bilateral talks with Narendra Modi in New Delhi and to attend the Indian Economic Forum meeting on October -04-04.
"Bangladesh wants to dissolve the maritime boundary issue with India through taking a decision amicably where both the parties will win," a senior official told the Daily Observer without elaborating.
In 2009, India submitted its claim to the continental shelf of the Bay of the Bengal cutting off Bangladesh's access to the deep sea and creating a dispute over 9,000 square kilometers of areas claimed by Bangladesh.
India also created another dispute by setting a coordinate 2.3 miles inside the Bangladesh territory on the official maps.
However, Bangladesh immediately lodged separate objections with the UN on the matters as the maritime boundary delimitation between the two countries remained unresolved back in 2009.
"The delimitation line drawn by the arbitral tribunal created a so-called 'grey area' beyond 200M of Bangladesh's coast but within 200M of the coast of India.  Since Bangladesh has no EEZ rights beyond 200M, the delimitation line beyond that point only delimits overlapping continental shelf claims (that is the overlap between Bangladesh's continental shelf beyond 200 M and India's continental shelf within and beyond 200 M).  A similar grey area was created by ITLOS in Bangladesh and Myanmar, where the seabed of the grey zone is Bangladesh's continental shelf and the superjacent waters constitute Myanmar's EEZ," an official said.
He said the result is an unusual delimitation, where Bangladesh's EEZ is entirely surrounded by the EEZ of India and Myanmar, but Bangladesh is nevertheless entitled to a continental shelf beyond 200M, lying in some places underneath the EEZ of India and Myanmar.
"During his recent visit in Bangladesh, Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar discussed the issues with Bangladesh's Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen and both the sides have agreed to do so," the official added.
Mentioning the second issue, the official said in 2017 Bangladesh and India signed a framework agreement for utilization of $500 million line of credit extended by New Delhi in 2017 and two other memorandums of understanding for collaboration between the naval forces of the two countries.
This time India will also stress on the need for a defense relationship through the prism of the 1971 war of independence. This was explicitly underlined in the joint statement: "The two leaders agreed to foster mutually beneficial and deeper defense cooperation, taking into account the illustrious history of cooperation which began with both forces' joint operation during Bangladesh's Great Liberation War in December 1971," the official said.
Under the framework agreement for use of the line of credit, Bangladesh is working to identify its defense hardware needs and India to examine the armaments it makes so that the two sides can move forward in this sector, said the official who was present at the meeting.
Bangladesh is now buying military equipment from USA, China, UK, and Turkey.
"India will seek exemption of taxes and vat on the imports by Bangladesh from it for the projects implemented with Indian funds and reiterated its long pending proposal for allowing armed sky marshals on board for Indian airlines while flying to and from Bangladesh," the official said.
Mentioning the Bangladesh's agendas, the official said, "Bangladesh will raise the Rohingya and water issues to India and ask them to bring down to zero the number of deaths along the borders of the two countries.
Bangladesh also sought removal of barriers in accepting a mechanism for common standards of exportable products for increasing trade with certification of the Bangladesh Standard Testing Institution and the Bureau of Indian Standards as both the organizations are members of the Asian Standard Testing Union.
Both the countries will also discuss the waters issue and projects funded by India. However, India has thrice extended lines of credit during bilateral visit of Bangladesh prime ministers in the last six years.
When Hasina visited India in 2010, a $1-billion line of credit was the largest that India had ever offered - and also the Bangladesh had got from a foreign country, till then. A part of that, $200 million, was then converted into a grant, which Bangladesh will largely utilize for the Padma Bridge construction.
As per Export-Import (Exim) Bank statistics, out of the $862 million line of credit which was signed in August 2010, around only $325.94 million has been disbursed till now.
India then extended $3-billion soft loan during Modi's first ever visit to Dhaka in June 2015. According to Indian officials, the Exim Bank has given the green light on the projects suggested by the Bangladesh government under the second line of credit, but funds are yet to be disbursed as no contracts have been signed.
India's third offer for $4.5 billion came after Xi Jinping's visit to Bangladesh in October 2016, when the Chinese President extended a line of credit of $24 billion.